United States National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said this week that President Joe Biden’s decision to end America’s war in Afghanistan was necessary in order to prepare the US military for future challenges.

In an article for Foreign Policy, Sullivan said Biden “ended US involvement in the war in Afghanistan, the longest war in American history, and freed the United States from sustaining military forces in active hostilities for the first time in two decades.

“This transition was unquestionably painful—especially for the people of Afghanistan and for the US troops and other personnel who served there. But it was necessary for preparing the US military for the challenges ahead,” he said.

He went on to say that one of the future challenges “came even more quickly than we had anticipated, with Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

“If the United States were still fighting in Afghanistan, it is highly likely that Russia would be doing everything it could right now to help the Taliban pin Washington down there, preventing it from focusing its attention on helping Ukraine,” he said.

Sullivan stated that while Washington’s priorities are shifting away from major military interventions, the White House remains “ready to deal with the enduring threat of international terrorism.”

He said the US is still acting “over the horizon in Afghanistan”, referring to the US drone strike against the head of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri at a house in Kabul in July last year.

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, has however never confirmed that Zawahiri had been living in the house nor that he was killed in the strike.